My dream job is being paid to walk around everyone's yard, garden, property, with them in late winter thru late spring and go "oh look here! Your rattlesnake master is coming up!" "Oh my gosh look at all this bloodroot!" "Wow I think this is a lil trillium" "aww good ol elderberry, waking up so early"
You can come to my house in the Catskills anytime - I’m trying to find someone who wants to come teach me the ways of my wild property and tell me what the heck to do with seeds 🤣
My yard in the Berkshires is a wild monster. When you finish at Renee's in the Catskills, stop by my place!
Dioramas were my jam in grade school. I love tiny things. I've always dreamed of making a beautiful dollhouse and then giving it to a young person in need as a surprise. Wallpaper, working lights, etc. Or anonymously paying the heat and electric for a family or elderly person in need in my community.
Sounds like you’re a horticultural specialist with an emphasis on native species. Am in the same boat, with less plant- but more esoteric- tendencies. Sounds lovely.
Erica….this IS my job. I’m a forester on private & public lands. I get to walk through the woods with Landowners and tell them about the woods and wildflowers and invasive species too. I love it. It is a dream job!
I attended a youth homelessness prevention conference here in Toronto over the last few days and am exhausted but so inspired by the people who live Hope-Core, radical and resistant hyper-local acts of care and innovation. This quote resonated especially profoundly:
"Resist the urge to be the savior or the star. That too is a capitalist construction. People need each other in small ways. Let yourself be a small beloved piece of someone else's life." - Megan Giddings
I would want to be the yoga teacher and artist with the bay window full of plants and knick knacks that has teenagers roaming in and out all day with ideas and dreams and hope and hunger. I would never go online again. Just exist in that world with my cats and my friends and my community. That's my dream.
I am a school counselor at an alternative high school where I work mostly with refugees and immigrants who are learning English and have only recently arrived in the US. Every day I do my best to show them kindness and make them feel them that they are valuable and important and that people like me do want them here in our country. I also have teen parents, foster kids, trans kids, and others who didn’t “fit in” at their regular school. Every day I see our teachers treat them with love and support and respect and despite all the negativity and scariness out there in the world I am so glad to be in a community of kindness. Yes it can be hard and exhausting at times but I think my actual job is my dream job as I feel I am where I am most needed.
But also I think it would be cool if I could just be a crazy tinker with a cart traveling from village to village selling and trading trinkets and feathers, books, and potions and other weird crap that I would find. It would have to be pulled by a donkey. I would probably be considered to be a witch of some kind.
I am ESL teacher at a public Junior High. I see the same thing. A lot of our teachers have started wearing You Belong Here shirts. Our students have excellent attendance. They know we support them here. So fortunate to be in my dream job also!
I think I deleted the persons comment who said they needed fabric for fibers for art projects when I was replying. Can you re-reply? I am SO sorry! My enthusiasm is so ham-fisted!
I just found your Substack after reading your book (and being a lifelong fan). Just wanted to say it brings so much joy to read what you have to say. I’m an OB-Gyn that provides abortion care in the South (so it goes without saying that the last few years have been exhausting). My dream job is to be a coffee barista and bring people joy through caffeinated art!
I am in repro health and do abortion mutual aid in a ban state, I feel you 🫂 come over and I'll make you coffee! Or I guess actually I will let you make me coffee 😂 thanks for being out there!
Immediate improvement is a definite provider of mood improvement for me also! Was a university groundskeeper who always got comments after cutting /cleaning the edge of the grass along the sidewalks, all straight clean lines (please hear that in Guy Picciotto’s voice).
I had this idea for a story once, and maybe I’ll still write it, but I think it would also be my dream job, where I’d lease a store front and the sign on the outside would just say “Ideas”. And inside you’d walk in and there would be one person at a desk and a chair right across from that person. And the whole point would be for people to come in and have a person to be a sounding board/cheerleader for all their wildest ideas—a sort of angel on the shoulder type to counteract our dastardly inner critics who try to shut down wild dreams. Anyhow, I think it would be fantastic to help people believe in their authentic selves and to help construct a world filled with more untamed, heartfelt dreaming. Dream job both literally and figuratively
Perfectly said, Neko, thank you as always for articulating my feelings far better than I ever could. My dream job would be to play some kind of back-up instrument in your band. I'm not much good on guitar but could you ever use someone to just to stand in the wings and bang a gong now and then? Oh, just got my autographed copy of your book in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to read it. Thanks again so much for sharing your very inspiring life story with everyone.
Ha, Brian I kinda share your sentiment. I play bass and live in Northern New England and I kind of keep hoping some day I will see a "Neko Case looking for bass player for short tour of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont."
Of course, if the second sentence said "And can sing as well as Kelly Hogan." well, I'm out :-)
Also if you have a fabric or yarn you want to pass on I’m interested. I work with 2 other women doing fiber art installations. Our next one is an immersive floral experience that will be at 3 community events this spring in my town.
Ah! I found this post again! I somehow hid it from myself! YES, I have fabric and other stuff. Do you take leftover fake plant and flower parts from previous projects?
Yes, we would love the fabric and the plant/flower parts! Even if we don’t use it in this project it will get used somewhere down the way. Thank you so much!! We really appreciate your contribution!!
First off, purge give away. Got any weird, thrift store art/paintings? My little hallway in my apartment is a gallery of sorts of crazy paintings!
Second off, GARDENING!! I am finally getting soooooo itchy! I have to go to the farm store today to buy T posts to install my last trellis for growing winter squashes. Yay! I would love to hear what you get up to in the garden. I am fortunate to live in a cool apartment here in Portland where they let me dig 💚 I’ve considered starting a Substack chronicling my urban gardening adventures. Not sure anybody wants to read that!
Third off, moments of restoration in the chaos. I just spent the weekend in Astoria at the Fisherpoets Gathering. It is my absolutely favorite festival in my absolutely favorite town! It is a gathering of fisher folk and people who work maritime jobs from all over the country, singing songs and reading their poetry about fishing and working the water. These are the salt of the earth (sea?) people and it truly lifted me!!
Last off, dream job. I have worked in healthcare as a medical assistant for almost 20 years. I have real love for caring for people, but I am tired!! It just gets harder and harder. I have been really interested in the prospect of getting a bunch of goats that I rent out for brush control for fire prevention, etc. I guess I would need land, and goat money. Sounds really cool, though!
Sorry to take up so much space! Y’all tell me if you want to read about a weird little apartment garden in Portland, OR 😂
This spring as I've been starting all my seeds, I'm realizing one of my dream jobs is to run a plant nursery, specializing in growing flowers and medicinal herbs. I cannot wait to meet my garden in full form this year! I too have been avoiding Insta for about a month, and I can hear the plants better. Big reward.
Betty White is, and will always remain, a national treasure. Dream job… That is a hard one because being a Mom has been my dream job for the last 16 almost 17 years. And with any luck, I’ll never have to stop. Speaking of which, my son‘s middle name is Fox. His favorite album is Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Should you find anything fox related in your travels while cleaning out, I would happily pay for shipping!! We can resist in 1000 little ways every single day and the ripple effect of that will carry us through the next fouryears.
My dream job? I do love dioramas I found a dead pot plants roots looked great as a tree and the kids and I made a little diorama together.
I am retired so my dream job is noodling.
I agree with you re the mentality of socials. My beef has always been my experience of not being American in a very US centric platform.
I just got back from helping clean my daughter's rental , it is midnight, still warm and it's raining. I don't think its rained here for a long time.
I'm loving that sound.
Jenny and I listened to your dulcet tones on the audiobook version of your wonderful book. Jenny really enjoyed listening to you! Your voice suits you 😂
My dream job is just what I’m doing: writing. BUT in room overlooking the ocean. With my staffy Scout respecting my personal space just a bit more. With someone else keeping track of when we running out of laundry detergent. With everyone I love within driving distance. With more sleep each night. With Trump gone. To where he belongs.
My dream job is being paid to walk around everyone's yard, garden, property, with them in late winter thru late spring and go "oh look here! Your rattlesnake master is coming up!" "Oh my gosh look at all this bloodroot!" "Wow I think this is a lil trillium" "aww good ol elderberry, waking up so early"
You can come to my house in the Catskills anytime - I’m trying to find someone who wants to come teach me the ways of my wild property and tell me what the heck to do with seeds 🤣
My yard in the Berkshires is a wild monster. When you finish at Renee's in the Catskills, stop by my place!
Dioramas were my jam in grade school. I love tiny things. I've always dreamed of making a beautiful dollhouse and then giving it to a young person in need as a surprise. Wallpaper, working lights, etc. Or anonymously paying the heat and electric for a family or elderly person in need in my community.
I think someone should let me do that for money
Sounds like you’re a horticultural specialist with an emphasis on native species. Am in the same boat, with less plant- but more esoteric- tendencies. Sounds lovely.
Erica….this IS my job. I’m a forester on private & public lands. I get to walk through the woods with Landowners and tell them about the woods and wildflowers and invasive species too. I love it. It is a dream job!
WHAT
"Garden Hype Woman" remember when bands had a hype person?
Hell yeah that's me ✌🏼 landscape street team!
I’m with you!!!
I attended a youth homelessness prevention conference here in Toronto over the last few days and am exhausted but so inspired by the people who live Hope-Core, radical and resistant hyper-local acts of care and innovation. This quote resonated especially profoundly:
"Resist the urge to be the savior or the star. That too is a capitalist construction. People need each other in small ways. Let yourself be a small beloved piece of someone else's life." - Megan Giddings
I would want to be the yoga teacher and artist with the bay window full of plants and knick knacks that has teenagers roaming in and out all day with ideas and dreams and hope and hunger. I would never go online again. Just exist in that world with my cats and my friends and my community. That's my dream.
“I would never go online again.” YES!!!!
I am a school counselor at an alternative high school where I work mostly with refugees and immigrants who are learning English and have only recently arrived in the US. Every day I do my best to show them kindness and make them feel them that they are valuable and important and that people like me do want them here in our country. I also have teen parents, foster kids, trans kids, and others who didn’t “fit in” at their regular school. Every day I see our teachers treat them with love and support and respect and despite all the negativity and scariness out there in the world I am so glad to be in a community of kindness. Yes it can be hard and exhausting at times but I think my actual job is my dream job as I feel I am where I am most needed.
But also I think it would be cool if I could just be a crazy tinker with a cart traveling from village to village selling and trading trinkets and feathers, books, and potions and other weird crap that I would find. It would have to be pulled by a donkey. I would probably be considered to be a witch of some kind.
This immediately brought to mind the painting Vagabond by Remedios Varo. That person has everything, is on the move, and is definitely magical.
Just looked it up and yes, that is amazing! Though my legs are definitely not that skinny!
I am ESL teacher at a public Junior High. I see the same thing. A lot of our teachers have started wearing You Belong Here shirts. Our students have excellent attendance. They know we support them here. So fortunate to be in my dream job also!
I think I deleted the persons comment who said they needed fabric for fibers for art projects when I was replying. Can you re-reply? I am SO sorry! My enthusiasm is so ham-fisted!
Found her! Never mind!
I just found your Substack after reading your book (and being a lifelong fan). Just wanted to say it brings so much joy to read what you have to say. I’m an OB-Gyn that provides abortion care in the South (so it goes without saying that the last few years have been exhausting). My dream job is to be a coffee barista and bring people joy through caffeinated art!
I am in repro health and do abortion mutual aid in a ban state, I feel you 🫂 come over and I'll make you coffee! Or I guess actually I will let you make me coffee 😂 thanks for being out there!
Thank you for the work you do.
I always though street sweepers were cool. Slow and steady and you spot the difference right away.
Also one of the best signs of spring is when the streets are finally gravel free! (We’re not there yet)
Happy birthday to your gramma 🥹
I LOVE the Betty White stamp!!!!! ❤️
Oh, and that blue moment in the morning and in the evening….we call it ”sininen hetki” (blue moment 😅) so I know exactly what you mean. Magical.
AH! Of course the Finnish have a name for it! Thank you!!!
Immediate improvement is a definite provider of mood improvement for me also! Was a university groundskeeper who always got comments after cutting /cleaning the edge of the grass along the sidewalks, all straight clean lines (please hear that in Guy Picciotto’s voice).
Ahh yes! I worked for seven summers doing garden maintenance work and I still think that was the most rewarding job I ever had 😊
I had this idea for a story once, and maybe I’ll still write it, but I think it would also be my dream job, where I’d lease a store front and the sign on the outside would just say “Ideas”. And inside you’d walk in and there would be one person at a desk and a chair right across from that person. And the whole point would be for people to come in and have a person to be a sounding board/cheerleader for all their wildest ideas—a sort of angel on the shoulder type to counteract our dastardly inner critics who try to shut down wild dreams. Anyhow, I think it would be fantastic to help people believe in their authentic selves and to help construct a world filled with more untamed, heartfelt dreaming. Dream job both literally and figuratively
Omg, yes. I love this. Can I work there? That’s my gift - hyping people into their highest selves.
Saying "hi" and holding doors for strangers are both really good ones I indulge in a lot. It totally helps.
Perfectly said, Neko, thank you as always for articulating my feelings far better than I ever could. My dream job would be to play some kind of back-up instrument in your band. I'm not much good on guitar but could you ever use someone to just to stand in the wings and bang a gong now and then? Oh, just got my autographed copy of your book in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to read it. Thanks again so much for sharing your very inspiring life story with everyone.
Ha, Brian I kinda share your sentiment. I play bass and live in Northern New England and I kind of keep hoping some day I will see a "Neko Case looking for bass player for short tour of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont."
Of course, if the second sentence said "And can sing as well as Kelly Hogan." well, I'm out :-)
Does ANYONE sing as well as Kelly Hogan?
True!!
Mime interpreter.
Also if you have a fabric or yarn you want to pass on I’m interested. I work with 2 other women doing fiber art installations. Our next one is an immersive floral experience that will be at 3 community events this spring in my town.
Ah! I found this post again! I somehow hid it from myself! YES, I have fabric and other stuff. Do you take leftover fake plant and flower parts from previous projects?
Yes, we would love the fabric and the plant/flower parts! Even if we don’t use it in this project it will get used somewhere down the way. Thank you so much!! We really appreciate your contribution!!
Couple of things Neko:
First off, purge give away. Got any weird, thrift store art/paintings? My little hallway in my apartment is a gallery of sorts of crazy paintings!
Second off, GARDENING!! I am finally getting soooooo itchy! I have to go to the farm store today to buy T posts to install my last trellis for growing winter squashes. Yay! I would love to hear what you get up to in the garden. I am fortunate to live in a cool apartment here in Portland where they let me dig 💚 I’ve considered starting a Substack chronicling my urban gardening adventures. Not sure anybody wants to read that!
Third off, moments of restoration in the chaos. I just spent the weekend in Astoria at the Fisherpoets Gathering. It is my absolutely favorite festival in my absolutely favorite town! It is a gathering of fisher folk and people who work maritime jobs from all over the country, singing songs and reading their poetry about fishing and working the water. These are the salt of the earth (sea?) people and it truly lifted me!!
Last off, dream job. I have worked in healthcare as a medical assistant for almost 20 years. I have real love for caring for people, but I am tired!! It just gets harder and harder. I have been really interested in the prospect of getting a bunch of goats that I rent out for brush control for fire prevention, etc. I guess I would need land, and goat money. Sounds really cool, though!
Sorry to take up so much space! Y’all tell me if you want to read about a weird little apartment garden in Portland, OR 😂
Hello, yes, please- write about this apartment garden. It sounds charming and uplifting. :) <3
This spring as I've been starting all my seeds, I'm realizing one of my dream jobs is to run a plant nursery, specializing in growing flowers and medicinal herbs. I cannot wait to meet my garden in full form this year! I too have been avoiding Insta for about a month, and I can hear the plants better. Big reward.
Betty White is, and will always remain, a national treasure. Dream job… That is a hard one because being a Mom has been my dream job for the last 16 almost 17 years. And with any luck, I’ll never have to stop. Speaking of which, my son‘s middle name is Fox. His favorite album is Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Should you find anything fox related in your travels while cleaning out, I would happily pay for shipping!! We can resist in 1000 little ways every single day and the ripple effect of that will carry us through the next fouryears.
My dream job? I do love dioramas I found a dead pot plants roots looked great as a tree and the kids and I made a little diorama together.
I am retired so my dream job is noodling.
I agree with you re the mentality of socials. My beef has always been my experience of not being American in a very US centric platform.
I just got back from helping clean my daughter's rental , it is midnight, still warm and it's raining. I don't think its rained here for a long time.
I'm loving that sound.
Jenny and I listened to your dulcet tones on the audiobook version of your wonderful book. Jenny really enjoyed listening to you! Your voice suits you 😂
Love to you and yours.
My dream job is just what I’m doing: writing. BUT in room overlooking the ocean. With my staffy Scout respecting my personal space just a bit more. With someone else keeping track of when we running out of laundry detergent. With everyone I love within driving distance. With more sleep each night. With Trump gone. To where he belongs.